Special A Special Dash
by eskamobob21
Summary: Ryuu/Tadashi? Special A one-shot. Contest between Hikari and Kei turns out bad. Tadashi jumps in and gets hurt; now Ryuu feels bad. K .


Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Special A. I only love the show. © 2008

Special Dash

Ryuu sat back and watched Tadashi stuff his face with Akira's sweets. It was another normal day in the greenhouse; Hikari and Kei were arguing back and forth like normal while Akira screamed at Tadashi for stuffing said face with said sweets and Jun and Megumi sat back and sipped tea. Today Akira had brought some African Redbush that her father got while on a trip to Africa. Just another normal day in the Special A.

It was not long before Hikari challenged Kei to another contest. Ryuu really did not see how she could fail so many times without giving up. It must be her special ability to keep trying and trying without giving up. Ryuu didn't see the point in it. He had known Kei since they both were little, not that well of course but their families did business and so they were acquaintances, and Ryuu knew ho extraordinary this young man was. Takishima Kei was just a winner. Period. Maybe Kei would let Hikari win this once; but maybe not.

The challenge was who could juggle the most. Simple enough and Ryuu thought it would be a good waste of about half an hour.

It started out alright, Hikari and Kei one-upping each other until they both had inhuman amounts of stuff flying through the air; everything from plates to cups to silverware to chairs. Kei got a big advantage when, to Ryuu's horror, Kei managed to grab Yusuke the three-toed sloth and send him into orbit with all of the other objects. Hikari tried to do the same with Shuu the koala bear but soon lost her concentration. Plates and silverware came crashing down along with Ryuu's precious Shuu. Jun and Megumi, who were in front of Ryuu unknowingly prevented him from saving his precious bear. All hope seemed lost for the wide-eyed fuzzy animal until out of nowhere Tadashi, who had been watching the whole spectacle while still devouring what had to be his bodyweight in cakes, came diving in and made a sliding catch worthy of Koshien. Tadashi was roughed up and shaken up from sliding, but Ryuu's adorable Shuu was safe.

Akira was distraught over the loss of some of her better fine china, but after relieving himself of a very frighten koala, Tadashi stayed down. Ryuu noticed this and after placing the shaking bear in a nearby tree, Ryuu knelt down over Tadashi to see what was wrong. It was hard to hear Tadashi over Akira's bawling, but Ryuu was able to discern something about his left shoulder. Instantly Ryuu knew what was wrong: Tadashi had dislocated his shoulder in order to save Ryuu's precious koala bear.

Guilt singed at Ryuu's insides just thinking that his friend had to get hurt because he was not able to save one of his pets. A sullen shroud of disappointment fell over Ryuu's face. Ryuu felt like a terrible friend and wanted more than anything to switch places with Tadashi. There was no reason why Tadashi had to get hurt for something that Ryuu could and should have done.

The smile on Tadashi's face helped ease Ryuu's mind a bit, but he knew that by the way Tadashi was moving that Tadashi was in quite a bit of pain. Ryuu offered his hand to Tadashi to help him up and after hoisting the fallen friend to his feet Ryuu continued with the motion and brought Tadashi's good arm over Ryuu's shoulders in order to stabilize the boy.

Once the others saw what Ryuu was doing they instantly realized that something was wrong with Tadashi. "Tadashi what happened?" Hikari asked.

"Tada-kun what's wrong?" Akira chimed in.

Tadashi still had the stupid heart warming smile on his face as he grinned back at his friends. "Oh I just hurt my shoulder a little bit. I'll be fine."

Ryuu did not wait for anyone else to say anything. He knew that this was his fault and he did not want the others to scold him for it. He felt bad enough as it was so before anyone could say anything else Ryuu walked Tadashi out the door.

"Ryuu, I'm fine. We don't have to go to the nurse's office." Tadashi tried to reassure his friend but Ryuu was not buying it. "Hey Ryuu! I'm telling ya-"

"Please don't lie like that," Ryuu said in a very serious and surprisingly low voice. "Tadashi, you might be able to fool the others like this, but not me," which was true because unlike the others Ryuu had been watching his friend for some time. Ryuu had always thought that the top seven in the school was a little mean. It meant that someone was always the odd one out. The number seven. Natural pairs formed in the group; Hikari and Kei, Jun and Megumi, and Tadashi and Akira. But who was there for Ryuu? He had always felt some injustice about this not having someone he could be intamitely close with in the group. Sure there was Jun and Megumi but Ryuu always saw himself as a surrogate father-figure instead of a close friend.

It didn't help that there was the little secret that Ryuu was hiding from everyone. Ryuu had known that he was gay since the end of middle school. He came to realize that it was always guys that he fantasized about instead of girls so it became kind of obvious to him. It was not like Ryuu was going to march in a pride parade or anything; this was a personal issue and besides, if the others found out about his secret then the SA., his last refuge, would be gone from him and Ryuu really did not know what he would do if he lost the SA.

"Tadashi, I can see how much pain you are in. I can hear it in your voice; I can see it in your eyes. I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am for having you get hurt instead of me." Tears were starting to line Ryuu's eyes. "Please, you do not have to act tough. I just want you to be alright." Up until that moment, Ryuu had never spoken a bigger truth.

The pair reached the infirmary in what seemed like milliseconds to Ryuu. Spending alone time with they guy he admired made the trek seem like an instant. The nurse came right away and sat Tadashi down on a bed. After a small line of questioning the nurse instantly diagnosed Tadashi with exactly what Ryuu had suspected: a dislocated left shoulder. It was a simple fix; all the nurse had to do was pop it into place. The only complication was a fair amount of swelling around the shoulder that made Tadashi wince in pain every time he moved the joint, and every time Tadashi winced in pain Ryuu hated himself more and more.

"Alright, it looks like there's been some swelling around the joint so this could be a little painful," the nurse said as she took a hold of Tadashi's wrist and elbow. The nurse straightened out the arm and aimed it back at Tadashi's torso. Ryuu had seen this done a few times before when he was little and knew what she was trying to do. In order to fix the problem would be to relocate the joint which meant placing the joint back into socket.

After the nurse straightened out the arm she moved it to the side of Tadashi's body so she could get a straight shot into the joint. Tadashi let out a gasp of pain as the nurse moved his arm. Ryuu knew that this must be very painful for his friend and felt even worse. Gingerly the nurse inched the arm to the side and every time the arm moved Tadashi would gasp in pain. Once the nurse finally got the arm to the side she had an epiphany. If this boy was in that much pain that simply moving the arm would hurt that much, he was going to be in much more when she tried to put the joint back in place. "Excuse me, Ryuu-san? Could you help me? I think I'm going to have some trouble getting the joint back in if someone doesn't hold him. The swelling is making the procedure pretty painful."

"Yeah, sure," Ryuu replied. He moved to Tadashi's right and placed one hand on Tadashi's left hip and another on his right shoulder blade to steady his friend.

"Get ready," the nurse said. Ryuu braced his brown haired friend and Tadashi readied himself for what was to come.

The nurse, seeing that the two boys were ready, made her first move. She could not get the joint back into socket with the arm at the boy's side, so the nurse had to make it level with the joint itself. She knew that it was going to hurt.

Ryuu watched in horror as the expression on his friend's face went from a brave but scared and faint smile to a face riddled with pain. The nurse was now slowly moving his arm up to make his wrist parallel to his shoulder. She was not even half way up but Tadashi already had tears lining the bottom of his eyes. He was gasping in pain after having his arm raised only a few inches, Ryuu could not take anymore of watching his friend, his secret admiration, suffer because of Ryuu's own shortcoming. Without thinking Ryuu took his hand off of Tadashi's hip and pulled his head into the crook of Ryuu's neck. Ryuu didn't care about what his friend would think he didn't care what the nurse would think. Ryuu wanted to comfort his friend any way he could. Having his friend and the object of his desire so close made Ryuu forget about the world a round him, forget about the pain that shred his insides, and forge about the hate the he had for himself. Tadashi was so close and so warm; and crying on his shoulder.

At this time the nurse had managed to get Tadashi's arm into position. "Alright, we're almost there. Please hold him steady Ryuu-san; I would like to get this done in one try."

Ryuu was in heaven and hell. Being so close to his secret fantasy made Ryuu's heart flutter and his head spin; but being the reason why Tadashi was in such pain and misery at the moment made Ryuu think about his friend a bit more in depth. Ryuu noticed that the nurse was about to continue and put Tadashi's shoulder back into socket. Ryuu took this chance to do something he has fantasized about for many months: Ryuu wrapped his arms around his friend and pulled him in to a tight hug. Ryuu could not hold his emotions in check anymore and gave in to the temptation to join Tadashi in weeping, though Ryuu knew he was crying for a different reason than Tadashi.

The nurse took this opportunity to make the fairly easy but painful procedure of getting the shoulder put back in place. With a quick thrust inward the nurse had the problem solved. All that was left was to prepare an ice pack for the swelling. With a sly smile and a silent laugh the nurse left the room to get an ice pack.

By the time the pain eased, the procedure was finished and the nurse had left the room. Tadashi found that the warm and solid mass embracing him was Ryuu who was silently weeping. Tadashi looked up at his friend and smiled.

Seeing Tadashi's warm smile sent sizzles throughout Ryuu's body. Ryuu was glad that Tadashi wasn't mad at him. If Ryuu had earned Tadashi's wrath then Ryuu didn't know what he would do. Instead Ryuu looked down at his friend and asked, "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes," said Tadashi. The two boys split apart and both of them rose to their feet.

The nurse came back into the room and approached Tadashi. "Here is an icepack for you, Tadashi-san. Please keep it on all day to keep the swelling down."

After securing the icepack in place, the two boys left the office. The walk back to the greenhouse was in total silence and seemed to Ryuu that it took hours. When the two reached the doors to the greenhouse Tadashi stopped and turned to Ryuu. "Ryuu, thank you," Tadashi said wearing his usual dimwitted but so terribly cute smile.

Many things crossed Ryuu's mind. He wanted to say so much to his friend, his crush, his secret love. Ryuu opened his mouth, but the words wouldn't come out. He tried again and still nothing. This it came to him. Ryuu connected the dots and was enlightened as to why he could not tell Tadashi how he felt, that he loved him.

"No problem, Tadashi," Ryuu said to his friend. He looked Tadashi straight in the eye and returned the same smile from the bottom of his heart. "Come on Tadashi, they're waiting for us."


End file.
